Teach Him to Trust
by EndlessMoonrise
Summary: "Lone wolf, huh? So, next time you lose control over your wolf self? What happens then?" I looked up at her and started to walk away. "Well, that'll be an interesting day, won't it?"... Takes place between 'Family Ties' and 'Cry Wolf' Rhydian has his first argument with the Vaughn's and wolfs out, but Maddy's there to keep him calm, and perhaps get him to open up at the same time.
1. Chapter 1

**Teach him to Trust.**

 **Full summary:**

 **"Lone wolf, huh? So, next time you lose control over your wolf self, what happens then? He looked up at her and started to walk away. "Well, that'll be an interesting day, won't it?"**

 **Rhydian hadn't expected that day to come so soon, and he definitely hadn't expected to find someone who understood him as much as Maddy Smith did... He's spent as long as he could remember depending on no one but himself, but perhaps she'll be the one to change that, perhaps she'd be the one that would teach him to trust.**

* * *

 **Rhydian's POV**

"Rhydian! Rhydian!"

 _I thrashed and kicked against the net that wound around my legs in a desperate attempt to break free, the forest fire was surrounding me, inching closer and closer and I was running out of time to escape, there was only a small opening through the trees and it was getting smaller and smaller by the second. I wasn't sure what trap I'd stumbled into but I couldn't fight free, I clawed at the binding around my muzzle, trying to free my mouth so I could howl for help, but felt an iron grip pull my paws away._

"Rhydian! Wake up!"

Someone shook my shoulders and I bolted upright, colliding with something hard on the way up. I recognised Mrs Vaughn through the sleepy haze in my eyes and panicked. "Get out! You're not supposed to be in here! Not unless I say so!" My sketches were everywhere in this room, pictures of wolves and yellow eyes and full moon, I only put them up in the confidence that they wouldn't come in here, they weren't supposed to come in here.

"Rhydian, calm down!" She said, her voice muffled. "You were having a nightmare, and it's only two in the afternoon, I thought something was wrong." I blinked away the blur in my eyes enough to realise she was holding her nose and blood was seeping between her fingers, I must have knocked her as I woke up...

My eyes widened and I stood up quickly. "Are you okay?" I asked looking around for something to help her with.

She nodded and walked out towards the bathroom and I followed her. "Just a nosebleed." She reassured and wadded up some toilet roll to put under her nose. Her eyes narrowed at me in concern. "Are you alright? Sweetheart, you were shouting for help." I turned away at the term of endearment and the acknowledgment of my nightmares. I'd had them for as long as I could remember, and I used to be able to cover them up, but they'd gotten a lot worse after my first transformation... I shouted a lot more than I used to... "They're getting worse, aren't they?" She said gently. "Are you sure there isn't anything I can do to help?"

There was something I wanted to know the answer to, I wanted to know if being scared of fire was a Wolfblood thing, I'd never liked it, but ever since Mr Vaughn had put the fire on a few days ago it had been a constant feature in my nightmares. I'd hardly slept since, which was probably why I'd finally crashed in the middle of the day. But I couldn't exactly talk to Mrs Vaughn about a Wolfblood thing "I'm fine." I muttered, wadding up some more toilet roll for her... I felt bad for hurting her.

She dabbed her nose and winced before looking down at her shirt which was dotted with blood. "Ohh, Rhydian, I need to change, could you go down and take the pasta off the hob? I don't want it to boil over." She said hurriedly and I nodded.

I was glad to get away. Don't get me wrong, I wished I could have helped a bit more, but I still wasn't really sure what to say to her. I stopped at my room, grabbing my sketchbook and pencils so I could draw after dinner, and pulling my bedroom door firmly shut behind me to hide my sketches.

I was stirring the pasta when she came downstairs, dressed in a different top and holding a folded piece of tissue in one hand. She had a bruise forming on the bridge of her nose, but I wasn't sure if it was dark enough for human eyes to see. I looked down guiltily. "I'm sorry...I uhh...I didn't mean to hurt you."

"I know." She said quietly. "Don't worry, it was just an accident." I watched her for a few seconds to check she meant it before walking over to the sink with the pan and colander, and draining the water from the pasta. "...You know...I'm always here if you want to talk about it." She said quietly.

I huffed and tipped the pasta into the tomato sauce that was simmering on the next ring over. "I don't want to talk about it."

She sighed. "I'm not saying you have to... I just mean it might help..."

"I said no!" I snapped at her, throwing the spoon into the pasta and walking away into the living room, grabbing my sketchbook off the dining table as I passed.

I settled down on the sofa, wedging myself into the corner and bringing my legs up to rest my book on my knees. I caught sight of my hands then, streaked lightly with wolf veins, I always was quicker to 'wolf out' when I was this tired... 'Wolf out' that was how Maddy put it anyway.

I took a deep breath and started sketching, knowing it would calm me down, when I was drawing I could forget, I could tune out all the noise and the scents and the emotions. When I put pen to paper, the anger dwindled away and I could get everything that was crowding around my mind, down onto paper... It was easier to deal with that way.

The veins in my hands receded and my grip on my pencil loosened slightly, enough that I could draw more smooth controlled lines instead of harsh jagged ones. I drew my nightmare, I drew the fire and the nets and the smoke, no escape, no way to call for help...

Once I had the basic line drawing I lay my head against the back of the sofa and started to shade...

* * *

"Rhydian." My eyes flicked open and I rubbed them with the heels of my hands, I hadn't realised I'd dozed off, but I obviously wasn't too far gone that I didn't respond to my name. I looked up to find Mr and Mrs Vaughn in the doorway, she had her back to me and he was looking down at her. "James, it was an accident, I was trying to wake him up from a nightmare and he sat up too fast, that's all."

I narrowed my eyes at them, but they hadn't noticed I'd woken up. "You're telling the truth?" Mr Vaughn pressed. "I know how much you want to keep him Michelle, but he's been known to get violent... If you can't control him on your own..."

I scowled, he thought I'd hit her on purpose? I felt my fists clench in anger and cut him off before he could say more. "I've never hit a foster parent, I've never hit a girl."

They jumped and Mrs Vaughn swung around to face me, eyes apologetic. "Rhydian..." She started.

I shook my head. "The only time I've 'gotten violent' is when people start pushing me around or making fun of me!"

"There are better ways to solve that then violence." Mr Vaughn said simply.

I laughed bitterly. "I'll ask them politely to stop next time, shall I? Let them walk all over me, see how far that gets me?" I spat.

He took a step around Mrs Vaughn, expression stern. "Do not take that tone with me young man!" I was momentarily stumped since foster parents didn't usually stand up to me this early on, but then the defiance kicked in and I rolled my eyes at him, turned back to my sketchbook and started shading again. I heard Mr Vaughn take a few steps closer. "Rhydian, look at me." I ignored him in favour of darkening some of the lines on my trees. "Rhydian!"

I sensed what he was about to do before he did it and managed to grab the sides of my sketchbook before he pulled it away "Get off." I said lowly, trying to tug it back but he held on. I growled under my breath."You're not allowed to take it off me! Social services said..."

"I won't have you ignoring, and speaking to me and your mother..."

I let go at that and stood to my full height, trying to resist the urge to bare my teeth at him. "She..." I pointed to Mrs Vaughn. "Is not my mother! She will never be my mother!" Suddenly I caught a glimpse of my outstretched hand to find it once again streaked in veins, but this time almost solid black. I pulled them away in a panic and backed away from them a few steps. I hadn't even realised I was this far gone, the wolf had come on so quick!

I tried desperately to rein it in the way Maddy had told me, I clenched and unclenched my fists to try and get rid of the wolf, but I couldn't. Mr and Mrs Vaughn were stood blocking the only door, the only escape, but even then my feet felt frozen to the floor.

Mr Vaughn was shouting but I couldn't hear him over the roaring in my ears. I wanted to growl at them, to make them get back but I knew I couldn't and I knew it was only a matter of time before my eyes turned well... Veins could go unnoticed to an extent, but bright yellow eyes couldn't be ignored.

Finally I managed to unfreeze myself, I grabbed my sketchbook from Mr Vaughn and pushed my way past him, down the hall. I paused long enough to snatch up my school bag and ran out the front door, into the woods...

I ran away.

* * *

Even as I ran the wolf didn't calm down the way it usually did, I felt it as my teeth changed and hands and feet turned to claws. Before I knew it, I was running on four paws instead of two feet, I didn't know where I was running, or how long I was running for, but my mind was whirring. What if they'd spotted something? They could be ringing all sorts of people by now, and even if they hadn't seen anything... Had that argument been enough for them to send me back?...

I felt my chest constrict in panic, to the point where I was panting to catch my breath. I couldn't get kicked out of this one... I needed Maddy and her family to help me figure out all this Wolfblood stuff. If I got kicked out who knows where I'd end up next? What if I was placed in another pack's territory? I remembered Maddy's reaction that first day, what if the next Wolfbloods I met weren't so understanding?

I wasn't sure how I ended up there, perhaps because I'd been thinking about them but I didn't realise where I was until I ran out of the forest and through the Smith's garden.

I pawed at the door and whimpered desperately to get in, I knew that their house was pretty remote, but I didn't want to take the chance of being spotted in wolf form, and I couldn't change back no matter how hard I tried.

Finally Mr Smith opened the door and I skirted around it and inside. It was only him and Mrs Smith in the front room so I backed away under the table and growled at them. I'd only really met them once, that one time they'd been all friendly and cuddly, everything I told Maddy I didn't want... I didn't want a pack, the same way I didn't want a foster family or friends...Don't let anyone close. That was the rule, my rule, and I want about to break it now.

...I wasn't stupid, I knew I'd have to get to know the Smith's more eventually... I just wasn't ready for all that yet... That and they were still pretty intimidating, Maddy said it was because they were the alphas, and with my wolf so used to being a lone wolf, it wasn't really sure how to react to them...

"What's going... Rhydian?" I looked over at the door Maddy had just walked out of and scrambled out from under the table, over to her side. "What's wrong?" She placed a hand on my neck and crouched down to eye level.

"Maddy!" Her parents protested, and I startled slightly, growling at them.

Maddy rolled her eyes at her parents. "He's not dangerous, he's just frightened." She turned to me and stroked my ears back, which made me uncomfortable, since I hadn't been touched in wolf form before. "Can't you turn back?" She asked. I shook my head, I wasn't sure how she was staying so calm in a situation like this, my heart felt as though it was going to beat through my chest and I was panting in anxiety. "First things first. Did anyone see anything?"

I whined because I couldn't give her a yes or no answer, I couldn't nod or shake my head. I wasn't sure how much the Vaughn's had seen, and I didn't know how to shrug my shoulders in wolf form.

"Were you at the Vaughn's?" I nodded my head. "Did you wolf out completely?" I shook my head and nudged her hand with my muzzle. "Just your hands?" She asked, understanding what I was trying to say. I nodded again. "Well, that's easily sorted, Mam or Dad can ring them, if they're not freaking out we can assume they didn't see anything."

I turned my head to the side in confusion. She was acting as though wolves running into her living room was an everyday occurrence. "Come on, let's get you down in the den, Mam's not gonna thank you for treading mucky paw prints through her house." She stood and patted my shoulder before heading down towards the cellar

I followed her and it wasn't until I reached the top of the stairs that I realised I didn't know how to go down stairs in wolf form, they looked twice as steep from this angle. Maddy was at the cellar door before she looked back up at me, I whined and tried once again to turn back into human form but I couldn't figure out how.

She walked back up the stairs and placed her hands on my shoulders. "I won't let you fall, I promise." With her keeping me upright I took the first few steps down with my front paws but I couldn't figure out how to do the same with my back ones. Finally I huffed and sat down on the top step, refusing to move. Maddy sat down beside me and looked down at the stairs, head tilted to the side. "I don't blame you, I can't figure it out either."

She lifted her hand and I flinched away, still not used to being touched in wolf form... In any form. She lifted it slower this time and touched my neck, threading her fingers through the fur there. "Hey, watch this..." She reached up to scratch the spot behind my ears.

I grumbled in pleasure and leaned into her cause wow that felt good. It was only a couple of moments later that I realised how ridiculous I was being and shuffled away from her. She laughed quietly. "You're pretty wound up aren't you?"

I turned my head away from her and she sighed, her hand still ran over the fur on my back, but there wasn't enough space in the small porch that lead into the den to get any further away from her. "You know." She said quietly. "I've never seen a wolf that wasn't me parents before, they've both got brown fur, but yours is kind of grey, or blond like your hair I've never seen a wolf like that." She prattled "...I'm trying to distract you, is it working?"

I hadn't really noticed until she said it, I was calming down a bit, but with the calm came exhaustion, I was so tired... I lay down and let my head rest on my paws dejectedly, I didn't understand how I could feel so on edge and so sleepy at the same time. I closed my eyes and tried to tune out, I just wanted to turn human again but I couldn't even do that...

* * *

When I opened my eyes again I couldn't figure out where I was, I tossed and turned and tried to blink the sleep out of my eyes until I felt a hand against my chest, I lifted my own hand to knock it away but it grabbed my wrist. "Hey, hey! Rhydian, it's me!"

Maddy?

I turned to her and sat up, pulling my wrist out of her grip and rubbing my eyes, I was relieved to find I was human again. The events of this afternoon started to come back to me, the nightmares, the argument... I looked around, still not recognising anything. I'd been outside the den last I remembered. "Where am I?"

She laughed quietly. "My room, you'll have to excuse the mess, I wasn't expecting visitors." She said wryly. I looked around, Maddy's room wasn't how I expected a typical girls room to be... It wasn't how I expected anyone's room to look like... It looked more...personal than my rooms ever did. I guess I had my sketches, but if you took them away, you had white walls, a bed, a desk and a wardrobe...

Her room was decorated in muted earthy colours, which I guess wouldn't really appeal to other teenagers, but I liked it. I didn't know about Maddy but bright artificial colours tended to hurt my eyes, her room reminded me of the forest...

She was watching me, almost like she was waiting for me to start panicking again. "You okay?"

I stretched out my arms and legs and arched my back trying to wake myself up a little. I remembered bits and pieces of moving from the porch to Maddy's room now. Some foul tasting potion, which made me relax and turn back, then Mr Smith guiding me here and sitting me on the bed. He and Maddy tugged off my bag and coat, and untied, my shoes before the drowsiness took over and I passed out. I pulled my phone out to check the time and frowned, I'd been out for nearly one and a half hours. I found six missed calls and two text messages from Mrs Vaughn. "Did your parents ring the Vaughn's?" I asked Maddy.

"Yeah, Mam spoke to Mrs Vaughn, she doesn't think they saw anything they shouldn't have." I threw my phone on the bed without checking it, as long as the secret was safe, I didn't need to speak to them. Maddy nodded to the phone. "She's worried about you... Said you heard something you shouldn't have."

"It's nothing." I muttered, looking away from her.

"Is everything alright at home..?"

I growled at her. "I said, it doesn't matter, Maddy!"

"Alright! Will you calm down?!" She scolded. "You're wolfing out again!" I looked down at my hands to find out she was right. I huffed and put my head back against the headboard, I was fed up with this, no matter how hard I tried I could never seem to keep it under control. "Breathe." She instructed, touching a hand to my shoulder.

I shrugged her off and stood up, grabbing my sketchbook and bag, and moving to sit in the corner instead. She just got too close sometimes, she'd lay a hand on my arm, or walk really close and I didn't know what to do about it. I rummaged through my bag to find a pencil and flicked open the cover of my sketchbook, this would calm me down. "You're fretting over something, I can sense it." Maddy told me from her bed.

I paused, my pencil freezing just inches away from the paper. I used to talk like that, tell people I could sense things, except it usually just got me weird or frightened looks. It was emotions mostly, I could tell when people were angry, or nervous, or excited... It must be a wolf thing. I ignored her and continued to sketch.

She sighed and stood up from the bed, walking over and plucking my pencil out of my hand. I glared at her but she just raised her eyebrows in answer, I reached into my rucksack and found another pencil only to have that one taken as well. I flashed my eyes and bared my teeth at her in warning, grabbing yet another pencil but she didn't give in, she grabbed it off me. "How many of these do you have?" She complained.

"Eleven." I snapped. "Ranging from 5H to 5B as well as a HB pencil, then I have charcoal, fine liners..."

"Hey, alright!" She held up her hands. "Don't go all art nerd on me!" She tossed my pencils back to me, realising it was a lost cause, and sat down a few feet away. I picked my pencil up and began drawing again, unhindered. "Rhydian... I just want to talk." She said quietly.

"I don't want to talk to you, to anyone." I muttered, shading in the wolf in my sketch.

"Why?" She pressed. "We've known each other nearly two weeks, we're the only people your kind that you've ever met, but apart from that first day, every time I try to get to know you, you hide your muzzle in that book and you close up."

I growled under my breath, gripping my pencil tighter. "What's it to you? If you weren't a wolfblood I wouldn't have begun speaking to you anyway!"

"I'm trying to be a friend, Rhydian! But every time I push too hard or get too personal you push me away!" She shouted.

"I don't want friends, Maddy!" I slammed my book shut and threw it against the opposite wall. "What's the point?! Opening up to people? Getting attached? All it'll do is make it hurt more when yet another foster family kicks me out!"

"Is that what this is about?" She asked softly. "Are you missing your friends from your last placement?"

I scoffed bitterly. "You really don't get it, do you? I didn't have friends in my last placement, I was only there for two weeks, five weeks in the one before that!" I kicked at my bag in frustration. "I haven't had 'friends' since I was ten, and then you sit there and expect me to know what to do when you joke on and try to talk to me." She frowned, placing a hand on my own.

I'd begun to tap my first two fingers against my thumb, it was some sort of nervous tic I'd developed a few years back, it got almost uncontrollable when I was stressed or panicked. I processed my emotions through my sketches, and I was just itching for a pencil and paper. I tugged my hand from under hers. "That!" I specified. "I don't understand that."

She was quiet after that, just sat by my side and watched my fingers closely. I tried to pull the tic under control but I was too worked up to be able to. She watched for a few more seconds before picking up one of my discarded pencils and slipping it between my fingers. I was surprised she'd figured it out, not many people realised that those small involuntary movements were the same ones I used to shade in pictures.

I breathed out a sigh of relief and already felt myself calm down. "You think the Vaughn's are going to kick you out?" She said finally, standing up, she retrieved my sketchbook flipped open the cover and placed it back down in my lap.

I shrugged, shading again. "They've never argued with me before, foster families usually wait a few more weeks, let you settle in before cracking down on the rules..." I muttered. "At this rate I'll be out of here before next full moon." I sighed and turned my pencil to rub out a line I wasn't happy with. "What if I'm put into another pack's territory? I'll be driven out!... I can't get kicked out of this one, Maddy... I just... I don't know how make them want to keep me..." I put my head in my hands "I get so... Angry, all of the time, and there's nothing I can do to control it."

"It's like that for all of us Rhydian... I'll be the same after my first transformation, it's a part of what we are. It's natural, I promise." I scowled, this wasn't really making me feel better. "Mam and dad can help you, teach you to control it, but you've got to let them."

"They keep trying to make me part of your pack, I told you, I don't want that!" I snapped.

She shuffled around to kneel in front of me. "Pack animals don't do well on their own, you need to be around your own kind..."

"I haven't been around my own kind since I was two, Maddy!" I avoided her eyes because she was starting to give me that same look I'd seen in countless social workers and therapists... Pity. "My pack, my own parents didn't even want me, so why the hell do yours?"

Maddy frowned and shook her head. "Mam and dad don't think you were abandoned... Your parents... They would have wanted you." She blurted out.

I frowned feeling my chest grow tight, the same way it did whenever someone mentioned my parents. "They can't know that." I muttered bitterly.

"Rhydian, if cubs are abandoned it's at birth. Your mum wouldn't have been able to raise you for two years then just walk away, that's not the way Wolfbloods are...something must have happened to her, to both of them "

I shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to have this conversation anymore. "I got along just fine without them anyway." I huffed, I didn't want to talk about this, my parents didn't want me, if they did I wouldn't be here.

"No you didn't, Rhydian... You need to learn, about your abilities, your limits, how to control your wolf... I can see it, me parents can see it. You have all this energy and anger, and you don't know what to do about it, the things you can do scare you."

"Shut up!" I growled at her, but she ignored me.

"You come to school every morning with dark circles under your eyes, because you have nightmares every night! You're not sleeping, and you wonder why you're wolfing out all the time!"

"Who told you that!" I demanded. The only people who should know about that were social services, counsellors and my foster parents.

"No one told me anything, Rhydian. It's just what happens when Wolfbloods don't sleep near the pack... Even when I sleep over at Shan's I have to take something with me mam's scent in it... Wild wolves live in a pack, watch each others backs while they sleep... Your wolf will try to keep you awake, alert, to keep you out of danger during the night, ready for the challenges you'd face in the wild, since there's no one to look after you."

I peered up at her, but leaned back, she was leaning forward, even closer than before. "That's why I have nightmares?"

She nodded. "It's all about controlling your instincts Rhydian, but only in public, around humans, here, you can be wolfblood, you don't have to worry. All those things people thought made you weird, they're normal here, you don't have to try and act human."

I crossed my arms and huffed, looking away from her. I don't think she realised just how overwhelming it got when she started talking like we weren't human, I'd spent a long time thinking I was human, you can't just chop and change. "How's instinct telling you to interact with another wolf, with me?"

"Maddy, I don't know!" I snapped.

She sighed and moved even closer, resting her head on my shoulder. I shifted uncomfortably and tried to shrug her off but she just glared at me. "Sit still will ya?!"

I stopped moving but leaned my head away from her "What are you doing?" She tilted her head in towards my neck and started sniffing.

"Going back to basics." She said, unfazed. "A humans senses develop, eyes, ears, nose." I frowned, both at the close proximity and because I didn't have a clue what she was getting at. "Our senses develop, nose, eyes, ears, just like an actual wolf cub." She leaned back and tapped my nose, but I pushed her hand away. "This is your keenest sense, and I haven't seen you use it, not even once."

I furrowed my brows, I knew that my sense of smell was far better than most people, but I didn't understand how I could 'use' it. "Scent is vital to a wolf, and a Wolfblood." Maddy continued. "Not just for locating food or whatever, it's an important means of communication. On your first day I caught your scent before I saw you, from that alone I could tell that you were a Wolfblood, male, new to the area since I hadn't caught you scent before..."

She sniffed my neck again and pulled away. "Right now I can tell you've spent all weekend at the Vaughn's, since their scents are the most prominent, I know that you've been drawing a lot since I can smell the graphite, the paint and the ink on your skin. I know that just before you left you were cooking tomato pasta, but didn't eat any because the scent is on your clothes but not on your breath." She sniffed the air. "I know you're nervous, tired, frightened, because I can smell the hormones in your bloodstream."

"Wolves sniff each other in greeting, as a way of finding out where the other has been, what mood they're in and so on, so it's very important for you to learn how to use your nose..."

I sighed I knew I couldn't act human well, but now apparently I couldn't even act Wolfblood either. I picked up my pencil and continued drawing. "This is stupid." I muttered, and shuffled further away from her.

She frowned at me."Rhydian! How do you expect us to teach you anything when you won't listen? You'd sooner just hide your head in that book than talk to us!"

"Maddy, I want to learn, it's just so overwhelming! How would you react if one minute you were human, then a freak, then a werewolf. Then suddenly it turns out you're none of those, you're a Wolfblood, an entirely new species you've never even heard of!" I tried to explain. "I'm sorry, but it takes more than a few weeks to get your head around that!"

Her eyes softened and she sat back down beside me, laying her head back against the wall. "I know, I'm sorry, I keep telling mam to lay off you and I'm being just as bad... I'm just trying to help..."

"I know." I tried to reassure her. "It's just too much at once, and I'm too tried to concentrate on what you're saying anyway." I'd obviously slept for a few hours on whatever her parents had given me to calm down, but it had been so long since I slept through the night that it hadn't really done me any good.

She was quiet after that, playing with her fingers and taking the occasional glance at my sketchbook as I continued to draw, I couldn't think of a reason to hide it from her, what with her being like me, so I didn't bother. "Tom said you were really good, but I haven't gotten a chance to see them properly." She told me finally. "... Would you mind if I had a closer look."

I shrugged and slid the sketchbook over into her lap. She gazed at the drawing, taking in the flames and the net and frowning. "It's what I dreamt of last night." I muttered. "The flames closed in and the net cut through my fur..." I trailed off and took a shaky breath. She watched me for a few seconds before, reaching out to touch the wolf, I grabbed her sleeve and pulled her hand back. "Soft pencils smudge easily." I warned. "... I need to set it first... Well, after I finish, I still need to put the shadows in, and graduate the shading on the wolf... And finish the fur, but I'll need my charcoal for that..."

She laughed quietly. "You really are an art nerd." I frowned and felt my cheeks heat up. I hadn't realised I rambled so much when I talked about art... "It's amazing." She told me, lifting the page and tilting her head to the side. "But... I watch you drawing all the time, where's the rest of your sketches?"

I shifted awkwardly since her questions were getting a bit more on the personal side. "... On the walls in my room." I murmured. "I do a different sketch each day."

"Do you always draw wolves?" She asked. I didn't answer that question. I drew whatever was on my mind, the most confusing or memorable thought or event of my day, most of the time that was to do with wolves, but not every day. Maddy seemed to realise I wasn't going to answer that and just asked another question, unfazed "How long does it take you to do each sketch?" I didn't answer that one either. "Where did you learn to draw like that?"

Again I didn't answer and she sighed in frustration, standing up, obviously giving up on me. "Mam told the Vaughn's she'd give you a lift home when you woke up..." She said hesitantly. "Will you be alright talking things through with them."

I huffed and looked away from her. I didn't want to go back, I didn't want to have to deal with what had happened this afternoon yet. She began to walk out the door before I spoke again. "Art therapy." I told her finally. "...That's where I learnt to draw, or rather I realised that I could draw..." I said hesitantly.

I frowned because this was a difficult story to explain unless you told the whole thing... But I guess it was kind of pointless, keeping secrets from her, when she was the only person who really knew the truth. "When I was ten I was fostered by a woman down in Bedford, to this day it was the longest I've ever spent in one place, one and a half years..." It didn't sound impressive, but she'd been the first parent that hadn't kicked me out because I acted a little weird.

When I turned twelve, my temper started to get worse I started to get into trouble at school and at home... I had two foster brothers, Jack who was eight and Michael who was fourteen. Michael would torment me, call me names, I don't even remember what he did that day, but I snapped... Let's just say he ended up with a black eye, broken nose and four scratches, right down here..." I ran my fingers in a clawing motion over my left cheek and down my neck. "I remember her screaming at me... I was frightened, so I ran up to my room, and the next thing I know, my social worker is in the house, in my room, and packing my stuff..."

She wasn't speaking, I got the impression that she thought I'd close up again if she interrupted me. I shrugged "I was taken back to the care home I'd come from and never heard from her again. Two weeks in the care home, and a similar thing happened with another kid, after that social services decided I was 'unfit to live with other children.' That meant no more care homes, so I've been bouncing from placement to placement ever since..." I laughed humourlessly. "I think they're running out of places to put me actually..."

I stopped, shifting nervously and she nudged my shoulder softly with hers. "Talk." She said gently, sensing my unease.

I sighed, but carried on. "...I was... In a bad place after that, confused, angry... So they took me to see a child psychiatrist...counselling, to try and help me control my anger..." I scoffed. "It worked for a bit, but then I remember one time, they asked me why I _pretended_ to hear and see and sense things, they thought I was lying, just after some attention... After that I just refused to speak to them, any of them, because none of them were listening to me, they didn't believe me..."

She shook her head, making sure I met her gaze. "That's awful, Rhydian, you didn't deserve that... I can't believe no one found out!"

I huffed, getting to the point of my story "Every time I moved I got a new therapist... Each one just as narrow minded as the last, up until one of them stopped trying to get me to talk and just put a pencil and paper down in front of me, told me to draw... I did because... Well, I didn't want to talk to her. She just carried on doing that, every week, every session I'd draw another picture, then one month down the line she put them them all out on the desk, and started talking... She could tell from my sketches that..."

I paused, because this was the bit where she'd find out just how messed up I was. "I was struggling with anxiety, abandonment... This was six months after they kicked me out of the care home and I'd already been moved on from five different foster placements, I didn't understand what I was doing wrong... I was constantly on edge, worrying about the things I said, the things I did... Each time I was kicked out, I would go over it in my head over and over, trying to figure out where I went wrong... I still struggle with it now..." I looked down at my sketchbook in her lap. "Sketching helped me get those thoughts down on paper, instead of them being all jumbled up in my head I could order and organise them up on my bedroom walls..." I trailed off. "...It sounds ridiculous, I know..."

"No..." Maddy smiled. "It makes sense... I bet your room looks amazing!"

I shrugged self consciously, as nervous as it made me, telling her all this, I was kind of enjoying it too, she was the first person I'd ever felt I could truly be honest with, I could talk about all the weird wolf things and she'd understand me... "You could come and see it... You know, if you want..."

She grinned. "I'd love to... Why don't I come back with you? Help explain things to the Vaughn's?" She suggested.

I put my head back against the wall and sighed. "I don't know what to say to them... Maddy, he thinks I hit her but I didn't, she was trying to wake me up from a nightmare and I sat up too fast."

"Then just explain that to him." She pressed.

I shook my head. "Mrs Vaughn told him what happened and he still questioned it... My file says I have a tendency to get violent when I'm agitated or angry... Which I do... You saw what happened with Jimmy... But I'd never..." I huffed because I wasn't exactly giving myself a good case here. "I just wouldn't have hit her, and I don't like that he thinks I could, even though he has every reason to."

"Is that why you wolfed out this afternoon?" She asked and I nodded. "It was just a misunderstanding, easily sorted." She reassured. "But I think it'll be best to get it out the way."

I shook my head, what if I started wolfing out again? "I told her she'd never be my mum, they don't like it when you do that." I murmured.

"Rhydian, stop fretting... Mam said she sounded pretty upset, but that's because she knows you heard them talking... Things got heated, but then what do you expect, you're still settling in, it's gonna take some time to get used to new people... I'll come with you, and I won't let you wolf out, I promise."

I scoffed. "Yeah? No offence Maddy but you don't exactly know what you're talking about. How are you gonna stop it?"

"Green fields and sunshine." She said as if it were obvious, and I tried not to show her that I found that funny a second time. She rolled her eyes and stood up. "Come on!" She grabbed my hand and pulled, and even though I didn't understand why she did it, I mean, it's not like I needed her help to get up, it didn't freak me out as much as last time.

 **AN- Hey! It's taken me longer to perfect this one than I'd planned, but I think I managed it in the end. I'm not 100% sure on how many parts this story will end up with, so it might be worth putting it on your follows if your interested, they'll definitely be a part two though, since it's pretty much written.**

 **Let me know your thoughts! Since I love hearing your views and encouragement!**

 **Please Review!**

 **-EndlessMoonrise X**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN- As always I got an amazing response from you guys! you just make me want to write more and more! Anyway, here's part two! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as enjoyed writing it!**

 **Rhydian's POV**

Maddy's mum drove us over to the Vaughn's, the look of pity she was giving me every time she thought wasn't looking didn't escape my notice, and I figured her and Mr Smith had probably heard everything I'd told Maddy. I huffed and turned to look out the window so that I couldn't see her or her mum.

I didn't even speak to her when the car stopped, just walked up to the door as she arranged a time to get picked up. I paused unsure weather to knock or just let myself in, I did the same thing every time I needed to get back in the house. I had house keys, it just didn't feel right letting myself in yet, I never usually got to the point where it did. Still, if I knocked then Mr or Mrs Vaughn would have to answer, and I didn't fancy a confrontation. Finally I just opened the door in the hope I could make it to my room without having to talk to them.

No such luck. I hadn't even made it to the bottom of the stairs before Mrs Vaughn walked out of the living room. "Rhydian..." She reached out as if to touch me and I pulled away, not meeting her eyes. "Look, what happened this afternoon..."

"I don't want to talk about it."

She shook her head. "We need to... What James said..."

"He had every reason to think I'd do that." I cut her off. "I don't blame him for trying to take care of you." I shrugged. "You're his wife, you were hurt and he jumped to conclusions based on what he'd read about me... I don't expect either of you to trust me or even believe me, but... I just wouldn't have hurt you, not deliberately." She opened her mouth to say more but I waved her off. "I don't want to talk about this anymore, I'm tired." This usually got me out of a lot of things, since she knew I didn't sleep well.

She sighed, but then something behind me caught her eye. "Who's this?" I turned to find Maddy in the doorway.

I shifted awkwardly "Maddy Smith... The girl from school, the one I told you about..." The only reason I'd said anything was because she kept asking me about school, I knew they were told to keep tabs on how I was settling in, any friends I'd made... So I'd told her about Maddy, just to get her off my back.

"Ohh..." She looked momentarily taken aback, probably because I wasn't exactly known for making friends in the first place, it wouldn't surprise me if she thought I'd made her up, since I'd tried that one before too.

"Maddy... This is Mrs Vaughn." I said awkwardly.

She smiled brightly and I frowned at her. "Hi Mrs Vaughn."

Mrs Vaughn smiled back, now completely at ease. "Please, call me Michelle... It's lovely to meet you."

"Maddy and I have a history project to catch up on." I lied, it was unnerving me that Maddy could already feel more comfortable around her than I did.

"...You could set it up on the dining room table if you like." She said hesitantly.

"We're just going to do it in my room." I told her

Again she looked at me strangely. Most people would assume she just didn't want me taking a girl up there, but I knew it was because she knew I didn't like people in my room. "Okay..." She said finally.

I caught Maddy's eye and nodded up the stairs.

When we reached my door I hesitated, letting her see my sketches had seemed like a good idea earlier, but now we were just on the other side of the door I wasn't so sure anymore. "You don't let anyone in here, do you?" Maddy guessed.

I shook my head. "The Vaughn's are only allowed in if I let them, or if it's an emergency, obviously... It's an extension of what goes on in here." I tapped my temple. "You can just let anyone in."

"So why did you invite me up then?" She asked softly.

I ran a frustrated hand through my hair. "Because you probably understand it better than I do." I admitted, justifying it to myself, I opened the door and walked inside.

Maddy walked in beside me, moving to place her bag on my mattress and leaning back on the foot of the bed. I watched on nervously as she looked around, eyes flicking from one picture to another. "I don't know where to start." She laughed. "It's... I don't even have a word."

"It's like a timeline." I told her, pointing to two of the walls, the ones you couldn't really see from the door. "A month on each wall...It starts over there." I said finally.

She moved to the wall I'd pointed to and I sat down at my desk, pulling out my sketchbook so I could finish today's drawing. I could hear her shuffling over every so often as she moved down the wall. I didn't understand how she could find that first month so interesting, that had been the time around my first transformation, my drawings were hectic, jagged lines, that made no sense even to me... I hadn't started drawing wolves until after my first change, up until then it had just been dark, angry figures...

Eventually, they'd morphed into something resembling wolves after that night, but even then I hadn't really known what I'd turned into, I could see paws and fur... a tail, which had really freaked me out, but nothing that had screamed wolf... It wasn't until my second change, the night before I found Maddy, that I figured out for sure what I was... I could still remember seeing my reflection in the river water... Bright yellow eyes...

"You drew me!" I looked up to find Maddy about half way down the second wall and felt my cheeks heat up.

"I draw the most confusing or memorable part of my day, Maddy... I found a girl with the same freaky eyes and wolf senses I had, after spending so long thinking I was the only one, what else would I draw?" The picture was of her, her hair draped over her face and her eyes, her wolf eyes, the way they'd looked when I'd wolfed out in the dark room.

"You have to have some creepy, stalkery picture though right, this looks like a photograph."

I laughed quietly. "No, I drew you from memory..." I smirked.

She trailed her fingers across the edges of the paper as she moved over the rest of the wall. "Mam and Dad... You've got them spot on as well..." She narrowed her eyes at the wolf on the next sketch below it.

"It's the wild Wolfblood I fought." I told her, I hadn't been able to decide what to draw that day so I'd drawn them both. There was something about that wolf that was playing on my mind...

She nodded and looked down the wall. I cringed because... Well, I'd drawn her a lot over the past few weeks. "Do I really confuse you this much?" She asked. I shrugged and looked away, but I was surprised she understood that I wasn't just drawing her because I was weird.

"We're all scared of it." She said suddenly, and I looked up to find her beside my last few sketches, all had been my most recent nightmares. "The fire." She explained. "It's instinctual, we don't like that or confined spaces... Which would explain the nets you keep dreaming about."

"Well, good to know why I have the nightmares." I muttered... "Doesn't exactly help me sleep does it?"

She raised an eyebrow. "You really thought I haven't figured out a solution by now?" She skipped over and threw herself down on my bed backwards, rolling around on the covers, and nuzzling against my pillows.

I frowned at her. "Maddy... What are you doing?"

"Scent marking." She answered and crawled under the covers, she sat down and wrapped the duvet around herself. "Pass me my bag." I sat on the edge of the bed and did as she asked. She opened it, pulling out another pillow and hitting me with it. "Sniff that." She laughed.

I lifted it up to my nose and sniffed, still feeling ridiculous. "It smells like you... Your hair."

"That's because it's mine." She grinned, looking very proud of her plan. "The theory is, if you sleep with that, we can trick your brain into thinking there's another wolf here with you... Protecting you, because that's what you do in a pack, you protect each other." She picked up one of my pillows and hugged it to her. "I'm gonna sleep with this one, that way when my scent wears off we can swap them."

I thought that through, as weird as it sounded, it was actually pretty genius. "Will that work?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Guess we'll find out." She lifted herself up on her knees and flung the pillow at me, but I lifted my arm to block it. She sighed and sat back on her legs "Why won't you let yourself have fun?"

"I don't know how." I mumbled, I hadn't had friends before... Was Maddy a friend?

"Just stop trying not to! Rhydian, we're still cubs." She hit me with the pillow again, bouncing on her knees. "Live a little."

"I'm not a cub." I muttered. She growled at me and pushed the pillow against my face, tackling me to the bed.

"Oh sorry, I forgot." She sniggered. "You're a lone wolf, aren't ya?"

"Maddy! Cut it out." I shoved at the pillow, trying to push her off me. She got an evil glint in her eyes then and her hand reached for my sides, I squirmed and tried to shift away from her. "Maddy, stop it."

"You're ticklish!" She laughed.

"Maddy! Seriously!" I gasped, trying to grab her hands. "Mads!"

"Oh, you're using me nickname now are ya?" She teased and continued to tickle me. "I guess anything's better than smelly girl."

I sniggered. "You brought that on yourself. 'You smell like my parents.'" I scoffed "Very human."

She pause in her tickling and snorted. "Yeah, not my best opening line."

"...You're crazy." I laughed. She grabbed the pillow and shoved it at me, so I snatched up the other and flung it at her... As ridiculous as we were being, I couldn't help but laugh with her as we tussled.

 **Maddy's POV.**

I pounced on Rhydian and shoved the pillow against his chest, and he threw another at me, laughing. I was determined to teach him how to play, how to be a teenager, since he didn't seem to know how... He didn't seem to know how to interact with people, period.

After that first day, he'd gone back to ignoring me, acting like we'd never even met. I had to practically move him over to a table with me, Tom and Shan, like physically carry his dinner, bag and sketchbook over to our lunch table before he'd sit with us. Even then he wouldn't talk to them, he got nervous whenever one of us tried to make conversation, and we were lucky to get more than a few syllables out of him all dinner time.

That's why he'd surprised me with the amount he'd told me today, the things he'd said upset me. What he must have gone through already... Being moved around all the time, people not believing him, living in constant fear of being kicked out... He was right, another pack was unlikely to accept him if he ended up in another wolf's territory... Mam and dad would have driven him away themselves if they'd caught his scent first... I'd had to force them to listen to my explanation as it was.

I wanted him to stay, me parents had even warmed up to him a little, I think it was more pity at this stage though... I did feel sorry for him, but that wasn't why I wanted him to stay, it was nice having another person my age I could be myself around, but I did have to question, what with his track record in foster homes, whether he'd stick around for very long...

I knew there was a teenager in there somewhere, I'd seen it, if you pushed him enough he let his guard down, just like he was now. That first day I'd ran after him in the woods, after a few minutes he'd been smiling, enjoying himself, what had been a pursuit had turned into a game of chase within seconds.

As it was, this pillow fight was having the same effect. He was still a bit tense, but I knew that was just because he didn't like being touched too much, he was going to have to get used to it though, wolves were very affectionate creatures. I don't think being touched scared him exactly, I just got the impression that a lot of the time he didn't understand why I did it, comforting gestures, putting you hand on his arm or near his hand, even just playfully nudging his shoulder got you weird looks before he'd shy away... This was another thing I was determined to put right.

There were a lot of things he still needed to learn. Using his nose was one of them, his senses were just as developed as mine, if not more since he was fully Wolfblood, but he didn't use them the way a wolf should, he hadn't sniffed me or mam and dad when we first met, and that was one of the first wolf behaviours you learnt as a cub, it was important.

Someone cleared their throat from the door and Rhydian sat up like a shot, pushing me away. Michelle leaned against the doorframe, smiling at Rhydian in particular. "Is Maddy staying for dinner?" She laughed.

You could practically see the shutters come down again. "If that's okay with you." He murmured, he obviously still wasn't comfortable here. "I don't know if Maddy's mum has cooked for her though." He looked over at me, giving me the chance to get out of a vegetarian dinner probably, and I rolled her eyes at him.

"I'd love to stay." I reassured, sitting up to rest my back against the head board beside him.

Michelle had turned her head to peer at the sketches by the door, Rhydian caught that and tensed, she just looked curious, but I remembered what Rhydian had said about how his sketches were of what went on in his head, even though I might understand them, others might not. "Mrs Vaughn..." He cautioned and she cleared her throat before making her way down stairs.

I frowned "... Why don't you call her by her first name?" I asked once she was out of earshot. "I mean, you've lived here what? Three, four weeks?"

"I don't call any of them by their first names, ever." He muttered. "I never will."

"Why?" I felt comfortable asking, since he'd told me a lot about his past today, but apparently I was wrong to assume.

"Because if I start calling her by her first name, soon enough she'll want to be called mum." He snapped. "The last foster parent I called mum, she kicked me out anyway... At least this way, she just wants to be called Michelle..." I frowned and looked away, I'd never thought about it like that, I was always so assured in my parent's love, but I could see why Rhydian sometimes worried, I'd learnt this afternoon that his parents were a touchy subject.

Mam and dad really did think he hadn't been abandoned. Rhydian hadn't told me that he'd been found in the woods, but when I told mam and dad that he'd been in foster care since two years old, they remembered the story on the news. 'Child abandoned in the wild' and put two and two together. The bond between a mother and its cub was too strong for Rhydian's mum to have just left him...

He sighed and lay back down on the bed "...I'm sorry." He said quickly. That was another thing he did, he was always quick to lose his temper, but he'd apologise as soon as he realised he'd gotten out of hand.

Rhydian wasn't like other kids, and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, he just thought differently to anyone I'd met before. If I took the time to figure out how he saw the world, I was sure I could get him to relax around me, I needed to, because he couldn't cope with this on his own...

First things first though, he needed a good nights sleep. He was ratty and irritable like this, but he had an excuse, heaven knows when he last slept through the night... I lay down beside him, shoulder to shoulder. "Things'll get better." I told him quietly. "Less confusing and frightening... Me, me mam and dad... We're here to help in anyway we can, you just need to ask, alright?"

He nodded slightly but didn't say anything, his eyes were running over the sketches on his walls and his fingers were tapping together restlessly, like he wanted to sketch. He was quiet through dinner and for the rest of the evening, nodding off every once and a while as it got closer to night time. By the time mam came to pick me up all I got was a mumbled 'bye, see you tomorrow' at the door, and I just had to hope that I hadn't done more harm than good by getting him to open up.

* * *

It worried me even more when he wasn't in registration when the bell rang the next morning. Tom and Shannon asked me where he was and all I could do was shrug. I thought for a second that I'd scared him off, but just as Jefferies started the register he came through the door.

"You're late." Jefferies stated the obvious and Rhydian rolled his eyes.

"My alarm didn't go off this morning." He answered simply. "Sorry, sir."

"Sit." Jefferies told him shortly, without looking up, I figured teachers must get sick of going through the same script every morning.

I expected Rhydian to sit in his usual seat near the back of the classroom, but he surprised me by jumping over my desk and sitting in the chair beside me instead, he was smirking at some private thought and I narrowed my eyes at him. "Don't you find it funny?" He chuckled "We're wolves." He whispered. "Like the original dogs, and he's telling us to 'sit.'" I snorted, and he lowered his head closer to my level. "I'm sorry if that's offensive in Wolfblood terms, but I find it funny."

I laughed quietly, I'd never seen him this talkative, in fact I'd never known him even to initiate a conversation before. "How did you sleep?" I asked.

"Like a dog." He sniggered.

"Oh my.." I shook my head and bit my lip to keep from laughing. "Stop it."

He laughed at me, eyes finally meeting mine. "Jokes aside, I slept great Mads, better than I have in... Well, as long as I can remember. Thank you." I smiled up at him, this explained his good mood. "I don't usually set an alarm, since most of the time I wake up in the middle of the night anyway... This morning, Mr Vaughn was practically banging my door down at eight o'clock, because I'd slept in. That's why I'm late."

I leaned against his shoulder, trying to convey... I don't know, congratulations maybe? He seemed to understand though since he leaned back against me in reply.

"Rhydian Morris." Jefferies called.

Rhydian rolled his eyes. "Yes sir." He turned back to me and continued talking. "Is it really necessary for him to say my name in that ridiculous Welsh accent?"

I scoffed. "Is it even possible to say your name without the accent, your name _is_ Welsh."

He paused, pondering that. "...Yeah..." He admitted finally. "But he still says it weird." I laughed and he laughed with me, mischievous glint in his eyes. "I wonder how he'd react if I actually answered him in Welsh?"

I sniggered. "You don't even know Welsh."

He raised an eyebrow in challenge and grinned at me. "lleuad, coed, cig... Fy nams yw Rhydian, Rwy'n ddwy flwydd oed." He rattled off, and I stared at him wide eyed.

"What's all that mean?"

He laughed. "Moon, trees, meat... They're the few words I remember anyway, didn't make much sense up until now." He smirked and I scoffed. "And then. 'My name is Rhydian and I'm two years old.' That's what I told the social worker when they found me."

I shook my head in amusement. "And you say you're not Welsh."

He shrugged. "I don't know how to say 'Yes Sir.' But I'd learn it just to see the look on his face."

I laughed, a little louder than I'd planned to, since imagining Jefferies face was just too funny.

"Maddy Smith." Mr Jefferie's called.

"Yes sir." I answered between giggles.

He eyed me strangely before looking back down at the register. "Something funny you'd like to share with the rest of the class Madeline?"

"Your full name's Madeline?" Rhydian sniggered.

I elbowed him roughly and tried to keep a straight face. "No, Sir."

"Quieten down then please." Jefferies said evenly, and continue to call names.

"What else would Maddy be short for?" I asked Rhydian once he'd finished and the class chatter covered our conversation. "And at least my name isn't Rhydian!"

He laughed loud enough that Tom and Shannon turned to look at him in confusion. "You're in a good mood this morning." Shannon said slowly.

He shrugged. "It has been known to happen." He smirked

I scoffed. "Who knew you actually had a sense of humour!"

He laughed quietly, turning back to me. "Don't sound so surprised. There's a lot you don't know about me Madeleine."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Do not call me Madeline, it's what me mam calls us when am in trouble."

His eyebrows furrowed. "You know I don't have a clue what you're saying when you go all Geordie on me."

Tom and Shannon laughed, and I frowned. "You don't understand my accent?" I asked in disbelief.

"Most of the time? No." He admitted. "It usually takes me a few seconds to decipher it. You and your mum."

"We've known each other nearly two weeks and you're just telling me this now?!" He rolled his eyes and I laughed. "If you think that's Geordie, you should hear me Grandad speak." Tom and Shannon laughed with me, they'd met my Grandad so they knew exactly what I meant. "'I'm gannin doon the toon, mind watchin the bairns for us pet?'" I imitated him, much to Rhydian's confusion.

"Is that even English?!"

* * *

He was in the same mood for the rest of the day

Hyper.

Don't get me wrong he still wasn't Mr sociable, not with anyone but me and occasionally Tom and Shan, but he was defiantly more playful today, rested and relaxed, he wasn't shying away from contact the way he had been yesterday.

It was just us two during lunch break, Shan had headed down to the library to do homework and Tom was playing football with Jimi and his mates, so we headed up to the darkroom.

He sat himself down in the corner seat and looked up at me expectantly. "Random, weird Wolfblood facts. Go."

I laughed, sitting myself down in the computer chair. "You sure it won't freak you out?"

He shrugged. "It would probably freak me out more if I was to just find them out by myself though, wouldn't it ... I'm fine Mads, honest."

I spun myself around on the desk chair and watched the room spin. "We can hear another wolf's howl from up to six miles away... We're born deaf and blind but with I keen sense of smell... Our wolf eyes are blue, like wolf cubs, sometimes up until the first change, which is probably why no one ever found out what you are, since your eyes are blue anyway. Mine used to turn from brown to blue up until I was around eight, then they started going yellow."

He frowned in confusion. "Strange, but okay."

"That big sciency company, Segolia..." He nodded in recognition. "It's actually run by Wolfbloods... Emm... Wolfblood's mate for life... Oh, super weird one, a female Wolfblood is only actually pregnant for six months."

"Six?!"

I nodded. "Wolves are pregnant for three, humans for nine. So Wolfbloods are in the middle, they also follow the same breeding pattern, they can only conceive a cub between the months of January to March, that's why all our birthdays are around about July, August time."

"July or August?" He laughed

"... Yeah." I said slowly, not understanding what he found funny.

"When social services found me they said that they couldn't even find a record of my birth, no birth certificate or medical records, nothing." He explained. "So they literally just had to give me a date of birth... 21st of April 1998, exactly two years before I was found..." He was laughing now, not a reaction I was expecting considering the topic. "That means I must have lied to them about being two. I was at least three months off."

I rolled my eyes and laughed with him before coming to a realisation. "21st?... That's next week isn't it? Saturday? We should organise a movie night or something, me, you, Tom and Shan..."

"No." He said quickly. "I urhh... I don't celebrate it... Being taken into care." He shrugged. "Seems like a weird thing to celebrate... And it's not really my birthday, is it?"

I rubbed at the back of my neck, not wanting to say much more incase I said something wrong, I didn't want to ruin his good mood. "Come round for dinner then... Not a fake birthday thing, just for dinner... We can have a 'Congratulations! You've survived twelve years of idiot social workers and stupid foster parents.' Party."

It was a risky statement but it paid off, he gave me that rare lopsided smirk. "A 'Congratulations! Only three years of hell left!' Party" He supplied.

"This is gonna be a pretty long fake birthday banner." I scoffed. "I'll make you a card and everything."

"Okay." He laughed and nodded gently. "I'll come to yours." I gave myself a mental high five since it was the first time he'd agreed to come over without the bribery of meat. He reached out and spun the desk chair so fast that I squealed and clung to the back rest.

* * *

By the time the home time bell rang he was practically bouncing with pent up energy, he was up and out the class room door only seconds after the teacher dismissed us

Tom and I were supposed to be doing homework at Shan's tonight, getting ready for our exams next week, but there was one more thing I needed to do. I was already packing my stuff, in the hope I'd be able to catch up with Rhydian. "Hey Shan, me mam's just text us, she says she needs me home, I'll call you, go over the homework on the phone, yeah?"

"Oh... Okay." She said hesitantly, glancing up at Tom

I smiled apologetically. "I've got to go." I told them, and shouldered my bag, running out through the corridor and across the football field towards the woods.

I tracked him, sniffing the air and following his scent through the trees until it disappeared, I frowned, at a loss as to where he went, since the scent didn't fade out, it just vanished.

There was a laugh and the rustle of leaves and branches, then all of a sudden his face was less that a foot away from mine. I squealed, not expecting him to appear in the trees, and batted his chest in fright. He held up his hands in defence, but was laughing. "That catches you out every time, don't you think to look above eye level, smelly girl?" He was hanging upside down, his legs hooked over a low branch.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" I muttered. I thought he'd stop now that we were friends, sort of...

He tilted his head to the side in confusion, which looked weird upside down. "I don't mean that you smell bad." He reassured. "I meant that you're always sniffing, and that you smelt weird, but not bad weird." He said quickly and leaned closer, towards my neck. To anyone that wasn't Wolfblood it would have looked bizarrely intimate, but I knew that he was just finally listening to his wolf instincts. "Can I?" He asked.

I laughed. "You don't need to ask, would you ask if you could shake someone's hand?" That was the way you had to think with wolf behaviour, a lot of it just came naturally.

"No." He admitted, pausing only slightly before leaning in to sniff my neck, I tilted my head to the side so he could get a better sample of my scent, I was glad he was finally using his nose, we still needed to work on it, but this was definitely a good start. After a few seconds he pulled back, frowning. "How come I smell more like your parents than you do?"

I smiled, glad he was finally acting like a wolf, even if he was hanging upside down like a bat. "I'm not fully Wolfblood yet, my DNA is more human than wolf, like a 75:25 split. I have the senses, the speed, but the most I can wolf out is the eyes, as you've seen. Your human and wolf DNA is more or less 50% each way."

He swung around on the branch and landed lithely on his feet. "When do you start transforming?"

I shrugged. "It's a hormonal thing, like puberty. Different Wolfblood's start turning at different times, there's no set date, it should be soon though." I told him, determined to answer his questions as best I could.

He frowned. "What do you do during full moons now then? Camp out with you're parents in the den?"

"No." I smirked. "I have the house to myself, I watch late night horror films and eat popcorn."

" _You_ watch horror films, _alone, at night_?" He asked dubiously.

"Rhydian, _we are_ the things of horror films, and to be honest, we're not that scary are we? Besides if monsters were to come and get me in the middle of the night, I have two guard dogs in the cellar." I shrugged, I didn't get why people were so spooked by horror films anyway.

He scoffed, swinging from the branches overhead as we walked towards home. "...It'll be cool, having another wolf to play with... I've pretty much spent the last two full moons panicking. Fur, black veins, yellow eyes, those I could deal with... Well, sort of. It was the tail that freaked me out." He sniggered. I smiled softly at him, he was even more talkative now, in the woods with just the two of us, so I must have done something right last night. "What?" He questioned my look.

I shrugged. "You just seem happier that's all, more relaxed." I pointed out.

"I feel it." He smiled back. "Talking about all this, and knowing you won't think I'm insane, getting answers from you... Answers I've wanted for heaven knows how long... Everything's starting to just click into place and make sense, and now I've had enough sleep to think straight... It's not as overwhelming anymore... It's more..." He trailed off, looking for the word

"Exciting." I supplied and he nodded in agreement.

"I feel like I can be more myself now, like being myself isn't a bad thing, I'm not a freak." He laughed. "I'm just not human, not entirely, and that's perfectly fine... Does that make sense?"

I nodded, glad he was finally coming to terms with what he was. "We just need to get you _acting_ like a wolf." I laughed. "We're playing hide and seek."

"Wolves play hide and seek?" He smirked.

I ran and jumped on his back, and he shifted nervously for just a few seconds before settling. I covered his eyes carefully with one hand and placed the other beneath his nose. "Close your eyes, count to fifty, and find my scent. Track it." I urged, he hesitated slightly before sniffing at my hand and I gave him a few seconds before climbing back down.

"One... Two... Three... Four..." I waved my hand in front of his face to make sure he wasn't peeking. "Five.." He laughed, his eyes still closed. "Are you gonna go hide or not?"

I stuck my tongue out at him and glanced around briefly before shooting off to my left

I weaved in and out of the trees, counting in my head as I went, but was careful not to cross over my trail, since I didn't want to make it too difficult for him. Once I got to forty seconds I focused on finding a hiding spot...

 **Rhydian's POV**

"Forty eight... Forty nine... Fifty." I paused trying to resist saying my next words, it might have been years since I'd played with other kids, but I remembered this game. I sighed, giving in "Coming! Ready or not!" I shouted, even though she might have been too far away to hear me by now.

I sniffed the air the same way I'd seen Maddy do, and took a few steps forwards, confused when the scent faded a little, and when I took one step back it got stronger. I stood for a few seconds trying to figure the whole thing out, trying to focus my brain on nothing but her scent. That, I realised was becoming quite a reoccurring theme.

This morning, when I'd finally woken myself up, I'd found myself curled up by her pillow with my nose pressed against the fabric. My body was still heavy, and my brain still disorientated from deep sleep, it has taken me a minute to get over the disbelief, I couldn't even remember the last time I'd slept through the night! It had to be a pretty quick minute though since I was supposed to be in school in less than half an hour.

Mrs Vaughn gave me a lift in, thinking it would get me there quicker, I would have gotten there five minutes faster if I ran, but of course she didn't know that. A car ride obviously meant small talk on the drive there, but it didn't make me as nervous as it had all the times before, I wasn't as edgy on a full nights sleep. "You had us worried when we realised you were still in bed, we thought you'd just left for school early." She'd started.

I'd laughed. "Isn't that what a typical teenager is supposed to do? Refuse to get out of bed?"

She'd narrowed her eyes at me and reached out to press a hand to my forehead, checking my temperature, and looking even more confused when I didn't pull away. "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

I'd smirked. "Am I really that bad? To the point where you think any good mood is the result of a fever?"

We'd both laughed at the ridiculousness of it and she pulled her hand away to place it back on the steering wheel. "...Maddy's a nice girl." She'd said a few moments later.

"Yeah, she's great." She'd completely wiped out my nightmares, that's how great she was.

"Talking to her's helped you sleep hasn't it?" I'd nodded, her scent had been a big factor, but still, just getting the chance to _really_ talk to her, get to know her a little, had put me more at ease.

The Wolfblood stuff didn't seem as overwhelming, since I knew she'd answer any question I gave her as best she could... "She is nice to talk to." I'd admitted

"...Pretty too." I'd nodded absently. She was kinda nice to look at, and to sketch. Long brown hair and brown eyes, or yellow eyes, both were good. Wait! What?

"She's just my friend." I muttered, feeling my cheeks heat up and Mrs Vaughn had laughed at my embarrassment.

I shook my head as I thought back to that, I didn't fancy her, at least I don't think I did, I liked her as a friend, and you were allowed to think your friends were pretty, right?... I rolled my eyes at myself and focused on tracking her down. I was only about 100 metres from where the scent trail had started, swiftly realising that I was terrible at this whole scent tracking thing.

It took me nearly an hour to track the entire thing, and the longer I took the harder it got since her scent was fading. I had no choice to follow it though since I didn't even know which part of the woods I was in... I was lost.

When I finally reached something recognisable, I rolled my eyes and walked in. "You made me track you to your house?"

She was curled up on the sofa, head tilted back over the chair arm to look at me. "No, I hid for about half an hour then I got hungry."

"Maddy!..." I was about to complain that she'd left me stranded in an unfamiliar woods, and could of at least called me, but a scent caught my attention "Is that bacon?"

" _Now_ you use your nose." She scoffed, and nodded "I made you a bacon sarnie, ready for your valiant return."

I frowned in confusion. "Sarnie?"

"Sandwich" She clarified, laughing. "After we work on your nose we'll move on to Geordie dialect."

"Ha. Ha." I looked around, trying to be subtle about it. "Where is me 'sarnie?'" I tried to imitate her, and she burst out laughing.

"That was the worst Geordie accent I've ever heard." She gasped and I shook my head at her, waiting for her to calm down. "I've hidden it." She said finally. "You have to sniff it out."

"Mads.." I whined, but she ignored my protest, eyes glinting with amusement.

"Go fetch, wolf boy." I tried to glare at her but failed, unable to keep the smirk off my face.

...Yeah, I guess Maddy _was_ a pretty cool friend after all.

 **AN- And there we have it! Rhydian ended up a bit more hyper than in the show, but I guess so would anyone if you were suddenly more rested than you had been in years, obviously he calms down again, but that sense of humour definitely shows in 'Cry Wolf' and I was eager to show that side of him here. I can't see there being another part to this two-shot so let me know what you think!**

 **Other than that i'll see you all when I get my next idea!**

 **Please Review!**

 **-EndlessMoonrise X**


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